False Assets Declaration: Supreme Court Dismisses Charges against Saraki

The Supreme Court reportedly has dismissed the remaining three charges bordering on false asset declaration against Senate President Bukola Saraki in a case before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Delivering judgment on Friday, a five-man panel of the court, led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad all upheld Saraki’s appeal, dismissing the remaining three counts against him and declaring the evidence led by the prosecution as hearsay.

According to Naija News, in June last year, the Code of Conduct Tribunal, under the leadership of Danladi Umar, dismissed the entire 18 counts preferred against the Senate President.

The federal government however, not satisfied by the ruling, approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja which in its ruling on December 12, 2017, restored three out of the dismissed 18 counts and ordered Saraki to return to the CCT to defend the three charges.

Saraki, also in turn, appealed to the Supreme Court against the part of the Court of Appeal’s decision restoring three of the 18 counts, with the Federal Government cross-appealing against the part of the decision affirming the tribunal’s dismissal of the rest of the 15 counts.

However, in its lead judgment on Friday, Justice Centus Nweze upheld Saraki’s appeal and dismissed the Federal Government’s appeal.

Justice Nweze agreed with the CCT that the evidence led by the prosecution at the tribunal was entirely baseless.

Ruling further, he held that the Court of Appeal was wrong to have restored three out the 18 counts earlier dismissed by the CCT when it agreed that the evidence led by the prosecution was hearsay but went ahead to isolate three of the counts as having been proved.

A part of the Court of Appeal’s judgment where it held that “the prosecution failed to call those who have direct knowledge of the facts sought to be proved, to testify,” was quoted by Justice Nweze.

He said the decision of the Court of Appeal’s to restore three of the counts based on the evidence it had declared as hearsay, was “equivalent to judicial equivalent of a forensic somersault”.